Stoicism promises happiness by demonstrating how the contemporary metrics of the 'Good Life' - wealth, reputation, and material success - can actually deprive us of a meaningful existence. In this Blog I am systematically rewriting and annotating the unpublished Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (black links below) to supplement those one hundred and fifty key selections published in my book, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Selections Annotated and Explained. The published selections - referenced in red by page and section heading - are organized in the book as an effective manual on the new Stoicism - a practical updated philosophy with stunning contemporary relevance to modern personal, spiritual, psychological, political, and environmental issues. The newly explained meditations are being added in reverse order beginning with Book XII. (more to come)

"Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations implores human beings to exercise their 'divine' gift of reason to uncover the laws of
nature. For Marcus Aurelius our reason is what defines our core humanity, and our reason is governed by the same
physical laws that govern the stars. When we explore nature and when we visit the stars today we are
doing what Aurelius commands, and in so doing we uncover those same laws that we were meant to live by. The Stoics
demanded that we must 'live according to nature.' We cannot live according to nature until we understand what nature is.
Our exploration of Mars is the latest stage in a complex human journey that we humans began nearly two thousand years
ago." - Russell McNeil, PhD, Mars LIDAR pioneer & author

"A stirring reinterpretation of Aurelius's Stoicism for our time. In Russell McNeil, Marcus Aurelius has at last met the colleague he has sorely needed for almost two millennia: a sensitive and systematic editor, and a loyal and lucid commentator."
- John Black, professor of philosophy and liberal studies,
Vancouver Island University

"Bloody brilliant! Everyone on the planet should read it, most especially those in positions of power"

The Original Self-Help Book: This book will not offer you instant wealth, nor does it proffer snake oil remedies for modern problems. It does show where real happiness lies - and that happiness does not stem from fame, fortune, or gratuitous pleasure. The original Meditations were written in twelve volumes, many repetitive, and in no particular order. Physicist Russell McNeil has rewritten and reordered the key meditations as a modern handbook on Stoicism designed for people with no previous background in philosophy. The Stoic approach to living is not contingent on the believe in a God, or faith, or divine "revelation," or fuzzy incoherent logic. Stoicism is rooted firmly in reason and sound argument - and reason is rooted firmly in thermodynamic and cosmological principles governing the physical laws of nature.

Topics: Stoicism and War; Stoicism and Climate change; Stoicism and Drug Addiction; Anxiety Management through Stoicism; Stoicism in the Treatment of Depression; Stoicism and Alcoholism; The Joy of Stoicism; Buddhism and Stoicism Compared; etc.